What does "titivate" mean?

To make small improvements or alterations to (one's appearance etc.); to add some finishing touches to, to spruce up or touch up.

What is a synonym for "titivate"?

Common synonyms include: spruce up, adorn, array, beautify, bedeck, bedizen.

How do you pronounce "titivate"?

Pronounced //ˈtɪt.ɪ.veɪt//.

Titivate

//ˈtɪt.ɪ.veɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb

1
To make small improvements or alterations to (one's appearance etc.); to add some finishing touches to, to spruce up or touch up. transitive
"Had she spent the best part of a day in titivating herself in order that she might sit plunged in darkness, with nothing but her feet and her nose revealed?"
2
make neat, smart, or trim wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

spruce up adorn array beautify bedeck bedizen

Example

More examples

"Had she spent the best part of a day in titivating herself in order that she might sit plunged in darkness, with nothing but her feet and her nose revealed?"

Etymology

A modification of the earlier spelling tidivate, perhaps based on tidy + -vate, on the pattern of words such as cultivate and renovate.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.